Life-Saving Smoke Detector Legislation Passes Vermont Senate

March 4, 2008 – Legislation requiring photoelectric smoke detectors in homes has passed the Vermont State Senate. If approved by the House and signed by the governor, Vermont will become the first state to make the life-saving smoke detectors mandatory. Unlike the more widely-used ionization smoke detectors, photoelectric smoke detectors have been shown to sound earlier in smoldering fires.

“This is both a fire fighter safety and public safety issue,” says Matt Vinci, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont (PFFV). “These detectors will alert occupants at an earlier stage, which will not only allow residents to get out safely, but aids fire fighters in fire suppression. With this legislation, lives and property will be saved.”

Photoelectric smoke detectors contain a light source and a light-sensitive electric cell. Smoke entering the detector deflects light onto the light-sensitive electric cell, triggering the alarm.

Ionization smoke detectors have a small amount of americium-241, a radioactive material, and establish a small electric current between two metal plates, which, when disrupted by smoke entering the chamber, sounds the alarm.

Of particular interest, photoelectrics are more sensitive to large particles that are given off during smoldering fires – the kind of fires that kill people when they are sleeping.

“Seatbelts provide a good analogy. Using the ionization detectors is like riding in a vehicle with a seatbelt,” says Boston Local 718 fire fighter Jay Fleming. “But, the photoelectric is like wearing a seatbelt in a car that also has airbags.” Fleming, a Boston Fire Department deputy chief, spoke at the 2007 Redmond Symposium in Chicago, Illinois, on this subject. Fleming began studying ionization detector failure almost two decades ago after noticing a disturbing trend of people dying even with smoke detectors present.

The campaign to pass legislation in Vermont began after a fire killed a mother and her four children in Barre, Vermont, in 2005. The fire began inside the family’s apartment, which had a working ionization smoke detector. The fire smoldered for hours and the detector never went off.

After Barre City, VT Local 881 investigated the fatal fire and found the ionization detector was to blame, a hearing was called in the State Senate Economic Housing and General Affairs Committee.

Testimony from the PFFV, Local 881 and Fleming ultimately lead to legislation that, if passed, will require residents of single-family dwellings to install the photoelectric detectors. The bill is expected to be heard in the House when legislators resume session.